“The land deal you helped with,” she smiles and gestures at the kids playing. “These will be its first tenants.”
I stare at them. “Who—”
“Rescued from trafficking rings.”
I startle at the rough voice behind me. I whirl and come face to face with Lev, Viktor’s gruff but ruggedly handsome second-in-command.
“When Viktor and I were on the streets when we were young, this threat was always around the next corner. Every kid on the streets knew it. The boogeyman—the Baba Yaga—waiting to abduct you and drag you into some sort of hell.”
My heart breaks. I turn to look in anguish at the kids laughing and playing.
“Viktor is no saint,” Lev growls. “Neither am I. But we do what we can to stamp out true evil in this world.”
“You rescued these kids?”
“Viktor did, yes,” Lev grunts.
A tall boy sitting with a group of the older kids looks over at us. He jumps up and runs over, his face full of worry.
“Mr. Nychkov?” Lev turns to him. “Viktor. He is in trouble, yes?” The boy says in heavily accented English. He holds up an iPad with “Breaking News” and a picture of Viktor’s handsome face filling the screen.
Lev scowls, nodding. “Da, Maxim.”
The boy’s mouth thins. “You are going to help him?”
“Yes,” I say icily. “Yes, we are.”
The boy nods. “Good. I want to help you.”
Lev smiles and pats him on the shoulder. “You can help him by keeping the other children safe here, Maxim.”
“No, I can do more. I can shoot.”
Lev frowns. “You don’t need to shoot anything here, Maxim.”
The boy nods. “Back in my hometown, in Russian, my father… he works for a man in charge. How you say…” he frowns, looking for the right word in English. “Mayor? I can try to find his phone number—”
“Oh holy shit,” I breathe suddenly.
Nine frowns. “What?”
“He said mayor…” my face goes white. “Oh my God, It’s my father.”
“What is?” Lev growls.
“The connection with Viktor, Drucci, all of it.” The dots are connecting in my head. And suddenly, I realize this has my father’s political meddling written all over it. “It’s my dad, pulling strings, Viktor backed him into a corner. But his whole professional and personal lives have been him learning how to weasel out of corners.”
Nina’s mouth thins. “I knew it,” she mutters.
I stare at my hands, connecting the pieces. “I told my dad we were going to the factory that day. He must have passed it along to Joey, who sent those two men for Viktor. He must have known about the fragile truce between them. I mean, he’s the DA. But when that failed….”
“He got reckless and used his powers as DA to call in the cavalry,” Nina finishes tersely.
I nod. “Yeah.” I frown and look up at Nina again. “What are the charges?”
“Illegal guns, some random gambling charges, kidnapping, blackmail, racketeering…” She shakes her head. “The part that doesn’t make sense is the timing. If they had enough to get him for this before, why wait and do it now? We’ve always assumed they’re watching the house. But Viktor conducts all business either through a secure internet line, or off-site, elsewhere. Even if they were pawing through our trash, they—”
“Shit,” I choke out.
“What?”
I feel sick; nauseous, like my head is spinning.
“I wrote some stuff down.”
Lev growls dangerously. Nina stare at me. “You what?”
“I—I wrote stuff down. I was hitting the wall about being kept against my will, before…” I blush deeply.
Lev smiles thinly but knowingly. “Things change,” he growls. “Viktor knew?”
I nod. “He did. He threw the notes I wrote away though. If they were watching the house….”
“Then they were searching the trash. They must have found your notes and your dad used it as grounds for arresting him.”
I nod. “That has to be it.
Nina frowns. “That would all just be hearsay though, right? Legally speaking?”
“It’s circumstantial, yeah. But it’s enough for them to start tacking on real charges.”
I feel cold and numb. I hug myself, staring at the floor. My phone dings. I glance at it, when suddenly, my face lights up. The ding is a text from Zoey—just a funny gif of a cat falling into a bathtub that we like to send each other randomly. But all of a sudden, I realize what I have to do.
Even if it’s not going to be easy.
“There’s a way to fix this,” I breathe. “I mean all of it.”
Lev frowns at me. “How?”
My mouth thins grimly. “By backing my father into one corner he can’t weasel out of.”
17 Fiona
“I can’t believe you… ugh!”
“I know, I know!” I turn to Zoey, giving her a pleading look in the back seat of the town car. “I’m sorry, okay? I hated lying to you, I just…” I sigh. “You get why I couldn’t tell you, right?”
Zoey glances around the inside of the opulent town car, complete with custom engraved finishing, leather seats, and crystal tumblers snug in the little bar caddy. She rolls her eyes. “Ugh, fine. Yes.”
We’ve barely had time to talk since I surprised her at her apartment. First, she was elated that I was “back from New York” so suddenly. But when I started to tell her the real story, I’m amazed she let me even drag her into the car. But even though I can tell she’s ticked at me for lying to her face, I can see my best friend gets it.
She sighs. “So, Viktor Komarov. The Viktor Komarov?”
I nod, blushing. “Yep.”
“So, wait, you’re like with him now?”
My blush grows deeper, and her grin widens.
“Oh my God, I bet your dad loves that.”
“I don’t really care what he likes or not,” I mutter. “Not anymore.”
“He really gave you to Viktor fucking Komarov for a debt?”
I nod.
“Wow, what the fuck? No offense, I always thought your dad was…”
“A scumbag?”
She shrugs. “Well, yeah, a little. But this is something else.”
“Never underestimate Thomas Murray’s ability to throw people under the bus to advance his own career,” I grumble.
“So, you and Viktor…I mean is this like a crush,
